Pots On The Spot - Poster Colors

Poster colors on a black hand made paper. The painting was done with mainly 3 colors - yellow, black and white.

Thinking Man – Sketch with Micro tip pen

Took two hours to complete this sketch using a micro tip pen.

Colored Pencil Drawing

The colors were so attractive that I was tempted to do this sketch. I would have used most of the 12 colors from the Camel Color Pencil set. Retouched a bit using a micro tip pen.

Sketch with Micro tip Pen.

Still Life Sketch

Inspired by still life drawings by J. D. Hillberry, I tried a sketch of still life with charcoal.

I used Soft charcoal pencil from Camlin brand. I did not use Stomps. These are great accessories that give the artist to obtain a range of effects.

Check out other Camel accessories for charcoal drawing Camlin

Portrait of a Man with Indian Turban

His Turban!

The crown inherited from his ancestors
Exhibits the respect earned over generations
Epitomize his most revered tribe
In recognition to his deeds and service
Adorns his head with pride & dignity
His Turban!

In Hindi, a turban is called a pagr, Sikhs call it dastar while it called peta in other parts of the country. The color, size, type and style of the turban are very significant. In India the turban is not worn as a head gear for protection, but it symbolizes his identity like his faith, status in the society etc.

Sikh Turban: The turban is usually associated with Sikhs. They are required to wear a turban to manage their long hair as cutting their hair is forbidden.

Rajasthani Turban: Jats and Rajputs wear distinctive turbans. Rajputs traditionally wear coloured turbans whereas Jats wear sober white colored turbans. The Marwari clan wear light coloured turbans.

Maharastrian Pheta: The turban worn in the Indian state of maharastra is distinctive and is called Pheta. Peasants usually wear the white turbans whereas the saffron colored phetas are worn to mark the special occasions like wedding.

Mysore Peta: This is a special turban given to people in honor or recognition of their work as an award. Also its worn during some special occasions such as marriage.

This sketch was done with a 0.5 mm micro tip pen.

Portrait – Sketch with Charcoal

Portrait drawing with charcoal look very attractive as they are done using pitch black charcoal that produces a contrast picture with good depth

Here is one of my first few portraits done completely with a charcoal pencil.

Before starting the sketch make sure you have the following items handy:

• Different grades of charcoal pencil – hard, medium and soft. Camlin pencils are commonly available ones
• Charcoal eraser is different from a normal eraser that are used for graphite pencils
• Fixative to avoid smudging after the sketch is complete

I sketched an outline before getting into the details of the portrait. Its important to sketch the outline of the eyes as they are most important part of a portrait. The spacing between the eyes is very important. After sketching the outline of the eye, I normally take a 2-3 minutes break and come back and take a re-look, make some adjustments in the position and size. Make sure they are propionate and spaced appropriately. Then proceed with sketching eyebrows which are the supporting feature of the eyes.

Mark the highlights so you can revisit while working on the details of the picture.
Start working on the details of the sketch. After adding the strokes, I started to blend the shading with a help of facial tissue. In some places, I used an ear bud to blend and get a smoother finish.

Some of the other tools that can be used for blending are felt pen, blending stump and papers.

I took around one hour to complete this sketch. After completing it, I took a break for 10-15 minutes. Take a re-look to make some finer adjustments before calling it complete.

Remember to spray the fixative after completing to avoid smudging!

If you are interested in trying out some serious charcoal and pencil drawing, try this book - Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil by - J. D. Hillberry

A mini tutorial on Charcoal and Pencil drawings is available here by J. D. Hillberry